Have a question? Hit the raise-hand key

E-learning is growing in popularity. It works with split screen, so on one half of your screen you can see the class and on the other, whatever slides are being shown.

By:Fiona Ellis Published on Thu Mar 21 2013

When Moriah Linton attends her online class she's reminded of the TV sitcom The Brady Bunch.

“You have a split screen, so on half of your screen you can see whatever slides the professor is actually going through or drawing,” she says.

“The other half is your professor in a big box, then my team is all the way around him, just like The Brady Bunch.”

Linton, a personal banking area manager with BMO, based in Stratford, is doing the virtual team option of Queen's University's executive MBA program, to progress in her career. Her team includes two people in Ontario, one in New Brunswick, one in Newfoundland and one in Nova Scotia. The program requires four weeks' residency over 16 months, and every two weeks she has two days of online class.

“I've developed really close friendships with these people. We'll just call each other up and we'll Skype and just chat. It doesn't even feel like you're not there,” she says.

E-learning is a fast-growing trend in post-secondary education. Ontario offers approximately 18,000 college and university online courses and over 1,000 online and distance education programs.

For continuing education students like Linton, online learning allows them to study and work full time as well as saving time and energy getting to class.

“I was faced with the choice of driving back or forth or doing the virtual option,” says Linton. “If I choose to commute I would have been spending six hours travelling every two weeks. I thought ‘that is really some quality time I could be spending on my studies.'”

Do those students sitting at home in their PJs find online programs isolating?

“I was a bit concerned it might be hard to connect in the very beginning,” says Linton, “but I think myself and my teammates would all agree we are probably closer than many of the teams that meet face to face.”

She thinks the bond she has with her “virtual” classmates is stronger than the bonds of those attending traditional classes.

Reg Noble, academic coordinator for the certificate in food security at Ryerson's G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, would agree. He says one of the big differences between the online learning environment and the classroom is that you can bring students together who would never normally connect.

“When students do group work together, they are sharing the perspectives and knowledge about the actual environment in which they are currently living,” he says.

“We had a graduate student who was a senior field officer for Caritas in Vienna. When the Haiti earthquake occurred, this student went to deliver aid to Haiti as part of an international development assistance program he was leading. He was able to share his experiences with his fellow students online.”

“You could not get this kind of immediate interaction about a very serious food security issue in a classroom,” says Noble.

“Although a very sad and devastating experience, it allowed our Canadian students to understand the problems of dealing with such a tragic event.”

In January the University of Toronto rolled out Blackboard Collaborate software on campus for webinars and web conferencing.

Using the Blackboard tool online, students have access to video, chat, can move among different online rooms, take part in polls, ask and answer questions, share their desktop and more.

“The new software is essentially a virtual or an online environment that provides a lot of the same functionality that you'd expect to have in a classroom,” says Laurie Harrison, director of online learning strategies at U of T.

The university has numerous online courses that will benefit from this new technology.

For instance, this January was the first time a large undergraduate class has been offered online.

Dr. Franco Taverna of the department of human biology is leading the way, teaching a class called “introduction to human neurobehavioural biology” to over 100 students, with classes held live online each week using this new interactive learning space.

When neuroscience student Omar Bitar, 19, found out his class was going to be taught online, his reaction was a “blend of curiosity with a hint of fear.”

“I never experienced a complete online course before,” he said. “But it's great. Just the fact you are free to connect from wherever you are.”

Bitar says he is able to see and hear the instructor clearly, he is able to scroll down the list of students logged into the session, he can share thoughts on a certain theory through a chat window, answer or ask a question, or discuss an argument with a peer — all in real time.

“One of my favourite features is the raise-hand button I usually use when I have an inquiry or comment to make,” he says. “It's great to have this new experience and be able to interact in this way.”

And for Bitar and his classmates, the convenience of attending class online from their homes is a huge bonus. “Everyone I asked gave positive comments. Especially people who commute and who otherwise would have to travel one or two hours to campus. ”

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